Speaking of Patterson, Bill O'Reilly is no longer a collaborator on children's books.

Last November, for reasons that probably have physicists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders the world over still trying to figure out, James Patterson released a children's book with former Fox News lothario Bill O'Reilly.

Titled Give Please a Chance, it focuses on one of Patterson's pet peeves: manners.

Yet, for the upcoming October 2017 release of Patterson's next book about good behavior, Give Thank You a Try, Patterson has gone it alone.

[[[GASP]]]

That's right. We're in the dawn of a new era. James Patterson actually managed to write a short story (albeit for kids) completely on his own. I know global warming is affecting weather patterns, but hell might have just frozen over as well.

The other significant matter is why Bill O'Reilly is missing from Give Thanks a Try. Was it because of the scandalous reports that got him fired from Fox News? Does O'Reilly have an aversion to graciousness and saying "thanks"? What's the story here?

The Washington Post reached out to Patterson, who refused to comment.

But when declining, did he politely say thanks?

Lexus asked James Patterson to review their car.

"A collaboration between Lexus and James Patterson was the perfect way to bring the experience of the (car) to life, as both a brand and an author who place such high importance on their respective crafts."


So says Michael Canning, the Executive Creative Director at the Australian marketing firm M&C Saatchi. Canning is apparently unaware that James Patterson hands over all the importance of his books to his stable of collaborators, as Patterson hardly writes anything with his name on it. Minor detail.




Regardless, Lexus in Australia will begin airing advertisements with a Patterson voiceover as he mutters out cliché after cliché.

Patterson feels confident, though, as he's quoted saying about the advertising campaign, "At first I wondered why Lexus chose me to review the LC500. But after one drive, I realize a car like no other needs a review like no other."

He added, "I hope it's as breathtaking as any of my best-selling thrillers, because the LC 500 deserves all that and more."

My guess is if anyone lost their breath while reading a Patterson book, it was an asthma attack or an adverse reaction to a peanut allergy--not the book itself.

All I know is that Stephen King is somewhere ready to write an infinitely better review of a Yugo or Datsun on the cheap.

I'm going to go with nutmeg and cumin words myself.

We all have vocal and writing ticks, whether we choose to believe it or not. Listen to your friends talk, those who always say something is amazing or super--two popular words that people rely on like a crutch these days for lack of having any other way to express something is wonderful or surprising.

Famous writers throughout history have had ticks as well, words and phrases they constantly rely on, which data journalist Ben Blatt found out by examining the numbers. Blatt calls them "cinnamon words," a hat tip to Ray Bradbury who once said his favorite word to use in writing was cinnamon.

In his new book, Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing, Blatt says he found the cinnamon words of many famous writers, as he tells PRI in the interview below.





Jane Austen, for example, leans on civility, fancying and imprudence consistently. Dan Brown? Grail, masonic and pyramid. Other quirks were found by Blatt, like how the word she is used only once in the entirety of The Hobbit, or that James Patterson seemingly uses 160 clichés per 100,000 words in his famed Alex Cross detective novels. (Of course, Patterson really doesn't write his books, so much as his collaborator, so I'm not sure who's to blame there.)

160 clichés, though--that's amazing. That takes a super effort.

Smallest library in Vermont reopens after nearly 70-years.

Everybody clown car!

A small town in Vermont is reopening its library for the first time since 1948. Not just any library, but the smallest in the entire state. It measures 10ft x 17ft, and has 800 books available to loan.

Well, James Patterson is popular is seems.

The West Danville library originally opened as a gas station in the 1930s before making the natural transition into a library. ((((scratches head)))) For whatever reason, by 1948 the library closed and remained vacant until today, when it will have its grand reopening.

The 1930s: Gas stations as libraries. Naturally.

You'll never look at your local Mobil, Shell, or Exxon station the same way again now.


photos: WCAX News

The check's in the mail: James Patterson mails out first wave of grants to independent bookstores.

James Patterson's books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, making him one of the most successful writers ever of commercial fiction in terms of sales. He's made himself a good life.

Last year, Patterson decided to give money back. He promised that by the end of 2014 he would donate $1 million to a number of independent book stores, all in the form of grants largely ranging from $2,000 to $15,000. All the book store had to do is apply. As he told Publisher's Weekly this week, "It’s as easy as putting on half a page of paper what you need to do. It’s not like applying to Harvard. It’s not difficult, and there’s no catch. We want to be inundated."

The only requirements for the bookstores are that they are a viable bookstore and have a children's section.

This week Patterson followed through with his wish, sending out check's totaling $267,000, and completing the first wave of grants. He promises the remaining $733,000 will follow out in stages throughout the remainder of the year.

The list of bookstores receiving money are below (per Publisher's Weekly).

Bookstores Receiving Grants in the First Round:

A Whale of a Tale – Irvine, CA

Alamosa Books - Albuquerque, NM

Anderson's - Naperville, IL

Andover Bookstore (Hugo Books) - Andover, MA

Bank Street Bookstore - New York, NY

Bay Company Books Inc. (Bookshop Santa Cruz) - Santa Cruz, CA

Book Bin - Northbrook, IL

Book Culture -New York, NY

Book Passage – Corte Madera, CA

Book Revue - Huntington, NY

BookPeople – Austin, TX

Books & Books – Coral Gables, FL

Books & Greetings - Northvale, NJ

Books of Wonder - New York, NY

Booktenders - Doylestown, PA

Bookworks - Albuquerque, NM

Brazos Bookstore, Inc. - Houston, TX

Brewster Book Store - Brewster, MA

Broadside Book Shop - Northampton, MA

Browseabout Books - Rehoboth Beach, DE

California Bookstore Day

Children’s Book World – Los Angeles, CA

Children's Book World - Haverford, PA

Doylestown Bookshop - Doylestown, PA

Eighth Day Books - Wichita, KS

Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle Children - Mendocino, CA

Hicklebee’s – San Jose, CA

Innisfree Bookshop – Lincoln, NH

Lake Forest BookStore - Lake Forest, IL

Little Shop of Stories – Decatur, GA

Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café – Asheville, NC

Mysterious Galaxy - Redondo Beach/San Diego, CA

Nicola's Books - Ann Arbor, MI

Norwich Bookstore - Norwich, VT

Oblong Books – Millerton, NY

Odyssey Book Shop – South Hadley, MA

Old Firehouse Books - Fort Collins, CO

Page & Palette - Fairhope, AL

Park Road Books - Charlotte, NC

Parnassus Books - Nashville, TN

Percy's Burrow - Topsham, ME

Phoenix Books - Essex Junction, VT

Porter Square Books - Cambridge, MA

Reading Reptile - Kansas City, MO

Red Balloon - St. Paul, MN

Russo's Marketplace Books - Bakersfield, CA

Schuler Books and Music - Okemos, MI

Subterranean Books – St. Louis, MO

The Bookies – Denver, CO

The BookLoft - Great Barrington, MA

The Bookstore Plus - Lake Placid, NY

The Children's Bookstore – Baltimore, MD

The Yellow Brick Road - San Diego, CA

Wellesley Books - Wellesley, MA

Wild Rumpus - Minneapolis, MN

Wonderland Books - Rockford, IL